Steve Forbert was in his mid-20’s when he released the soft rock track “Romeo’s Tune” that captured hearts with lyrics about fading away in the company of your lover.
In the late 70’s, Forbert released his second studio album, Jackrabbit Slim, which included “Romeo’s Tune” as the lead single. The track would become the young singer’s biggest hit and a one-hit wonder that landed at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 13 on the Adult Contemporary chart. While it stayed on the charts for 19 weeks, it would gain international recognition in 1980. It made its way to the charts in Canada, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, and South Africa.
“Romeo’s Tune” was almost left unreleased, only because Forbert couldn’t develop a perfect version of the track. It was originally written for his debut album, Alive on Arrival, but he felt it was too much of a love song for the album’s overall concept. The track was shelved, as Forbert also wasn’t satisfied with what he had created and felt it wasn’t the hit he knew it could be.
“‘Romeo’s Tune’ was almost finished in Mississippi for Alive on Arrival. That album took on a bit of an autobiographical concept in my mind. Here’s a guy from Mississippi, going down to Laurel, goes to the big city, goes through some changes. And really I think that to have recorded ‘Romeo’s Tune’ and stuck it in the middle of all that would have been too heavy of a love song detour. And it wasn’t finished. I thought it was finished,” he explained to SongFacts.
The singer went on to add that he instead began playing it during live shows, and even one fan told him it was a hit track. Forbert honestly believed the song could be a hit, but struggled to get it right. He banded together with some musicians and producer Steve Bergh to develop a demo, and “we took a shot at it. It was weird. It wasn’t the right rhythm.”
Forbert continued to get a positive reaction when he played the track live, and it felt right. It wasn’t until his manager, Linda Stein, recommended that it “needed another verse,” and he recalls being in Paris when he came up with “Let me see you smiling back at me, hold me tight in love, and love is free.”
By the time they started working on the second album, they decided to try “Romeo’s Tune” again while in Nashville, and it “didn’t feel like we got it” despite the record label knowing it was a hit. They tried again in New York City to no luck, until they returned to Nashville.
“Let’s go back to Nashville. So we did. I think we got in a different drummer, Roger Clark, whose playing I’m very fond of. He even played on Strange Names and New Sensations a few years ago. And we got it right away. I mean, the first day was like, Right, this is the right band, and this is all happening. When all the musicians came into the room and listened to the playback, everybody said, That’s it, that’s the version we’ve been looking for. I think it was the third take that day,” explained the singer.
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